Book overview

A definitive exploration into this brilliant and dynamic American artist's workFeatures a commentary by fellow Pattern and Decoration movement artists Joyce Kozloff and Robert KushnerKaleidoscopic, intricately layered and colourful, Tony Robbin's paintings have explored and experimented with the boundaries of mathematical space in art for more than forty years. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of physics and maths- together with the advent of computer programming for geometry- Robbin's paintings achieve a boundless effect: the spatial fourth dimension is attained through his interplay of grids, manipulation of structures, and his use of color and form across the canvas. A founding member of the Pattern and Decoration movement in the 1970s, Robbin has also always been fascinated with incorporating elements of pattern into his work. Having grown up in Japan and Iran, his work often displays the elaborate decoration found in the art of these cultures.Tony Robbin: A Retrospective chronicles the artist's remarkable forty-year career from painting through relief sculpture, to light art, computer art, architectural-scale sculpture, and finally back to painting.
Robbin's work has been shown in more than twenty-six solo exhibitions since his debut at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1974 and included in more than one hundred group exhibitions in twelve countries. He holds the patent for the application of quasicrystal geometry to architecture and has implemented this geometry for large-scale architectural sculptures based on quasicrystal patterns. Robbin is also the author of several books published on the relationship between mathematics and art, and he has lectured on the subject in Europe, Japan, and the United States.A chronology and comprehensive bibliography complete the volume.